A few weeks back, The Bottom Line was all about the Banana Split. It was invented back in 1904, 1906 and 1907. Back when news didn’t travel around as fast, you could get these independent instances of unrelated invention and discovery. It wouldn’t happen now, it would get spread as far and as fast as the internet could take it.

The 1904 has been confirmed as the earliest know banana split. It was created by David Evans Strickler, a 23-year-old apprentice pharmacist. The treat did start to spread as he shared it at professional conventions for pharmacists.

In 1906, a Boston ice cream entrepreneur came up with the idea as well. His didn’t work out so well at first. He didn’t peal the banana before splitting it. So people were trying to scrape banana out of the peal. It fared better with men than with women. Once he started to peal the banana first, it picked up with the women.

In 1907, a restaurant owner, Ernest Hazard, in yet another city and state ( Willmington, OH) was trying to come up with a desert to get the college students to come in more during the slower winter spell. He held a contest but the employees didn’t come up with anything he liked. So he came up with the banana split. They hold a festival every summer to honor this even. Despite the fact it was winter when it happened. I’m thinking frozen treats just go over better in the hot summer months.

Today, The Bottom Line was all about ice cream again. What I find somewhat amazing is that, once again, vanilla tops the chart as the number one favorite flavor. If you based it on books, TV, movies, or people in general, it always seems like people want chocolate. Chocolate comes in at second place, Strawberry is third, and Mint Chocolate Chip is fourth. (that one is my favorite)

I wonder if there is a difference in Vanilla, Vanilla Bean, and French Vanilla. I go through phases of each. I suspect one reason this flavor comes out on top so often is that is has a simple, clean, crisp taste that is good on its own and is perfect for a base for other toppings. Chocolate can hide or overwhelm some flavors of toppings and strawberry doesn’t taste good with all flavors.

Personally, I would rather have sorbet. I love the stuff. Or soft-serve frozen yogurt, but you can’t find that much anymore. For a while you could find a low-carb ice-cream. That stuff was amazing. It reminded why I used to like ice cream. Today, they take too much fat out of it and replace it with too much sugar. It isn’t the same ice cream as when I was little. I just don’t usually feel like having ice cream anymore. It isn’t at all satisfying. Sorbet I can enjoy. Frozen yogurt I can enjoy, especially Red Mango; the store not the flavor. My favorite flavor there is summer melon, covered in strawberry and kiwi slices.

It’s still going to be hot for a while. Maybe after payday, I’ll go to the only Red Mango shop that has the Summer Melon and treat myself to a dish of it.